Turin devices to meld IP, voice for the enterprise

BANGALORE, INDIA – Turin Networks Inc. plans to target enterprise customers when it introduces in May a new line of multiservice transport devices that combine Sonet/SDH (Synchronous Optical Network/synchronous digital hierarchy) and Ethernet.

The products will be called the TraverseEdge line, and are low-cost, stripped-down versions of the Traverse multiservice transport platform that Turin currently sells to network operators.

“If you look at most reasonably sized enterprises, they want some Ethernet ports, and a lot of them don’t want to buy anything more than E1 links,” said John Webley, president and chief executive officer of Turin. “So the TraverseEdge is optimized to give you a handful of Ethernet and a handful of E1s. It takes the Ethernet and maps it inside the E1s, combines it with other E1s which carry voice, and what goes into the network is a whole bunch of E1s, but they are carrying both IP (Internet Protocol) traffic and voice traffic.”

The advantage of the TraverseEdge is that it will let enterprises carry IP traffic over existing voice networks, according to Webley.

“TraverseEdge essentially provides … Ethernet access over the deployed voice network,” said Raghavendra Santamavattur, managing director of Turin’s development subsidiary in Bangalore that is doing work on this product. ” VOIP is only one of many applications customers can use this infrastructure for. There a number of other applications such as a video application or public LAN access.”

The TraverseEdge product is more of a device than a platform because the enterprise customer will not get the flexibility to configure the box to, for example, add more ports, Webley said. The starting price for a TraverseEdge product will be $4,000.

Turin, in Petaluma, California, is a vendor of Ethernet-over-Sonet equipment. Its flagship Traverse multiservice transport platform integrates next-generation Sonet/SDH ADM (add-drop multiplexer), DCS (digital cross-connect) and Ethernet switching in a single carrier-class shelf. The company sells directly and through OEM (original equipment manufacturer) ties with Motorola Inc. in Schaumburg, Illinois, and UTStarcom Inc. in Alameda, California.

Turin plans to increase revenue from enterprise sales to 30 percent of total sales from less than 10 percent currently. The company’s customers now are mainly wireline and wireless network providers and cable television operators.

“Although growth in business from the (wireline) telcos is back, the growth is still not large enough,” Webley said. “To get an upswing in revenues, we need the wireless networks and the enterprise.”

Turin introduced in June a new family of multiservice Ethernet access products designed to enable service providers to deliver both traditional TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) and next-generation broadband Ethernet services more cost effectively to small and medium-size business customers. These Multiservice Enterprise Access (MEA) products were co-developed with Motorola, and will start shipping in volume in June next year at about $1,000 each. Turin is already selling some product prototypes.

“The MEA is a smaller version of the TraverseEdge with support for one Ethernet port and maybe one or two E1s, and is designed to support a very small customer,” Webley said. “Once you have a 100 to 150 people the customer will want a TraverseEdge.”

As it addresses the enterprise market, Turin plans to use different sales channels than its current partners like Motorola that are mainly selling equipment to network providers. “We still have to figure out the right sales channels to sell the TraverseEdge to corporate customers, and these are likely to be VARs (value added resellers) with a lot of corporate touch,” Webley said.

Turin has set up a R&D (research and development) center in Bangalore, India, that will handle product development and customization for the Asia-Pacific region.